Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy Breaks Silence on Supreme Court’s Future in Rare Interview

Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is back in the national spotlight with the release of his candid memoir, “Life, Law & Liberty,” and the revelations inside are already reshaping public debate over the modern Supreme Court. Kennedy, 89, served as the Court’s pivotal swing vote for three decades before retiring in 2018. In a wide-ranging interview tied to the book launch, he warned that today’s Court has become “a little bit too personal and confrontational,” urging the justices to “settle down” and focus on principle rather than personality. The memoir’s most eye-catching passage details what Kennedy calls a “chilling” private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a legal conference in Moscow years ago. According to Kennedy, Putin leaned across the table and, through an interpreter, said he had sat close enough to convicted murderers to “strangle them with my own hands,” a remark the justice says underscored Putin’s willingness to use power outside the bounds of law. Beyond foreign-policy intrigue, Kennedy devotes pages to his most consequential opinions. He reiterates why he sided with the Court’s liberals in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that guaranteed marriage equality nationwide. Contrary to speculation that Obergefell could be overturned after the Dobbs abortion decision, Kennedy argues in the book that the marriage ruling “rests on individual dignity in a way even a future conservative majority will hesitate to dismantle,” echoing comments he made to CNN last week. Industry analysts say the memoir lands at a sensitive moment. Public approval of the Supreme Court hovers near historic lows, and ethics controversies have fueled calls for reform. Kennedy’s critique that opinions are now penned in a harsher, more personal tone offers rare insider validation to those concerns. “When the justice who authored landmark rulings on gay rights and abortion limits says the Court’s tenor has drifted, people listen,” notes University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman. The book also traces Kennedy’s evolution on abortion. While he joined the plurality upholding Roe’s “essential holding” in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), he later voted to uphold certain state restrictions, revealing an incrementalist approach he hopes today’s Court will reclaim. In an NPR interview, Kennedy conceded he has “changed his mind” on several doctrinal questions over the years and believes humility is a judicial virtue. Publishers project brisk sales for “Life, Law & Liberty” as students, attorneys and court-watchers seek insight into a justice whose single vote legalized same-sex marriage, limited the death penalty for juveniles and, at times, expanded corporate political spending. Early pre-orders have pushed the title into Amazon’s top ten for U.S. constitutional law. What’s next? Kennedy has scheduled a short book tour with stops at Georgetown Law, the Reagan Presidential Library and the National Constitution Center. Court insiders will be watching whether his call for a less confrontational tone influences sitting justices as they prepare blockbuster decisions on administrative power and gun regulations this term. For now, the retired justice’s voice—tempered, reflective and at times startlingly blunt—has returned to the national conversation, ensuring that “Anthony Kennedy” remains one of the day’s most searched names as readers delve into the memoir behind the headlines.